#the Washington Post

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ramon Antonio Vargas at The Guardian:

The Washington Post’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from her position at the newspaper after its refusal to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the outlet’s owner, Jeff Bezos – along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before Donald Trump as he gears up for his second US presidency. “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” Telnaes wrote on Friday in an online post on the Substack platform detailing her decision to quit. “Until now.”

In a statement reported by the New York Times, the Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, defended the newspaper’s decision against publishing Telnaes’s cartoon, saying he disagreed with her “interpretation of events” and that “the only bias was against repetition”.

“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” said Shipley, whose statement added that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication.” Telnaes’s Substack post from Friday contained a rough draft of her cartoon. Beside Bezos, who founded Amazon before buying the Post, the cartoon portrayed caricatures of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Walt Disney Co mascot Mickey Mouse.

“The cartoon … criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with … Trump,” Telnaes said. “While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon.

“To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a gamechanger … and dangerous for a free press.” Telnaes announced her resignation less than three months after the Post and Bezos faced withering backlash over the outlet’s decision to prevent its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the presidential election of 5 November. Soon-Shiong had also similarly refused to allow the LA Times’ editorial board to publish an endorsement of Harris.

[...] Telnaes won the prestigious Pulitzer for illustrated reporting and commentary in 2001 – coincidentally, while working for the LA Times Syndicate – and was a finalist in the same category for the Post in 2022. She also received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award in 2017, becoming the first woman to win both that prize as well as a Pulitzer.

Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post over the paper spiking her cartoon that was very critical of its owner Jeff Bezos in that the cartoon depicting Bezos and other tech and media moguls kneeling in front of a Donald Trump statue. The Post’s refusal to publish this cartoon is more proof that many outlets are obeying in advance to Trump’s attacks on the freedom of the press.

See Also:

The Left Hook: Drawing The Ire of Trump and the Broligarchy: A Cartoonist Resigns to Defend The Free Press

[samreich]

incredibly moving feature on the great ally beardsley in the washington post

link to article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/31/dungeons-dragons-anniversary-game/

[contemplatingoutlander]

It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president

Isn’t this what a newspaper is supposed to do?

I love that The Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri took it upon herself to endorse Harris for her paper after Bezos pulled the plug on the editorial board doing so. This is a gift🎁link, so feel free to read the entire article. Below are some excerpts:

The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! [...] But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny.  [...] Well, that world [the baby will be born into] will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out. The case for Donald Trump is “I erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person — people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color — but … maybe he’ll forget.” “But maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on! [...] I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so. That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself! [color/ emphasis added]

How far The Washington Post has fallen into the "darkness" it used to work so hard to ward off to help keep our democracy alive.

[edited]

[retropopcult]

All The President's Men (1976)

[reyturnofbensolo]

[i-am-aprl]

✍️ George Orwell wrote 70 years ago that modern political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.

When it comes to the media’s coverage of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, unfortunately there is a lot of modern political language masquerading as journalism aimed to perpetuate the status quo.

The language is designed to rob the oppressed of their very struggle for dignity.

Having worked with many of these news organizations, I know this pattern all too well, a pattern that dates back decades, and that aims to dehumanize Palestinians and absolve Israel of any accountability for the countless crimes they commit on a daily basis.

These news organizations intentionally obfuscate facts and erase fundamental context to shield Israel from facing consequences for the crimes of collective punishment, ethnic-cleansing, apartheid and occupation, protecting the racist and rogue zionist state.

Their complicity is as obscene as it is obvious and I can assure you that they know exactly what they are doing.

[indelicateink]

Jeff Bezos blocked The Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

Over 200,000 subscribers have dropped their subscription, and the number is growing.

“Earlier this year, Lewis, the Post publisher, had touted the paper's net gain of 4,000 subscribers as noteworthy.”

[macmanx]

"Her principled resignation illustrates that while the pen is mightier than the sword, political cowardice once again eclipses journalistic integrity at The Washington Post."

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

More “obeying in advance” by the Washington Post

I haven’t referred or cited to the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos ordered the editorial board not to endorse Kamala Harris for president. I sometimes wonder whether that was the right decision. Today, it became clear it was.

Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes just published an article on Substack entitled, Why I'm quitting the Washington Post. Telnaes explains that she prepared an editorial cartoon that showed billionaires bowing in supplication to Trump. The cartoon is in the linked article. As explained by Telnaes,

The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.

Telnaes explains,

For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job [publishing the cartoon]. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

Ann Telnaes deserves our respect and admiration for her courage. And the ongoing disgrace at WaPo should cause all self-respecting journalists and columnists to follow Ann Telnaes’s example.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

History repeats | Michael de Adder

[merv606]

[contemplatingoutlander]

Restored Notre Dame unveiled with grand tour led by Macron

The televised tour is the first look inside the revamped cathedral since the 2019 fire that put it at risk of collapse.

PARIS — Notre Dame’s stone vaults, its checkered floor and its golden altar cross are glistening. As the world gets a first in-depth look inside the restored cathedral since the 2019 fire that gutted it, today’s tour guide is President Emmanuel Macron. The French leader led a televised walk through the cathedral Friday, on his final visit to the site of a herculean restoration effort before the Parisian landmark officially reopens Dec. 7.

It is wonderful to see this masterful example of French Gothic architecture restored once again!

This is a gift🎁link, so you can read the whole article.

Above is a photo and the video from the article. Below are some gifs made from the above video plus two more gifs made from two other videos of Macron's tour of the restored Notre Dame. Below are also two photos from the article showing what the altar looked like after the fire in April 2019, and what it looks like today.

Notre Dame's Altar: Two photos (after the April 2019 fire and the restored altar in Nov. 2024)

"Two photos show the destruction inside Notre Dame in April 2019 and its restored altar in November 2024. (Christophe Petit Tesson and Stephane de Sakutin/Pool/AP)"

_________________ Source for video and photos; Video sources for gifs (before edits): 01-07, 08, 09-10, 11

[chernobog13]

What The Washington Post said.

[thoughtportal]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

After refusing to endorse a Presidential candidate last month, the Washington Post Editorial Board (“The Post”) published their encore abdication of duty by defending Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu against an ICC arrest warrant. “The ICC is not the Venue to hold Israel to account” the editorial board proclaimed. I took the time to carefully read their argument, hoping for some semblance of fact or truth in their words. What I found was a poorly written, illogically argued, propaganda piece full of deceptive omissions, out of context claims, bizarre contradictions, and flat out lies. “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is apparently no longer the The Post’s slogan, but instead their mission statement. The Post’s Editorial Board has done a disservice to journalism, to human rights, and to international law. Below I dismantle each of their arguments one by one, with receipts, and provide the facts that they refuse to cite, let alone acknowledge.

[...] The Post lists numerous known dictators and war criminals and the mass atrocities and genocide they’ve committed or enabled. This appears to be an attempt to accuse the ICC of hypocrisy, because the ICC has apparently not issued arrest warrants of those whom the Post lists. [...] As mentioned, the ICC is not engaging in selective prosecution. But if there is hypocrisy, it is The Post holding Netanyahu to one standard of immunity, and al-Assad to another, when in reality both should be prosecuted for war crimes. Likewise, The Post inexplicably seems to suggest that just because a country has democratically elected leaders with an independent judiciary, they somehow cannot commit war crimes and genocide. The logic is as confounding as it is utterly stupid. What, pray tell, can The Post cite to as evidence that just because a politician is elected, they are somehow exempt from being able to commit war crimes?

[...] I repeat, this report was published on October 6, 2023. But The Post would have us believe that none of the above happened and October 7 was a spontaneous attack. In reality, October 7 was a war crime, in response to Israeli war crimes. War crimes do not justify more war crimes, but one would hope that “the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary” would not engage in the mass murder of Palestinian children. Yet sadly, that is the reality we are witnessing, and the reality The Post continues to ignore.

[...] Again, The Post makes a claim with zero evidence. The ‘conflict’ has been ongoing for more than half a century of Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian land. Pray tell, when has there been any accountability for Israel building nearly 1 million illegal settlements, for killing more than 2200 Palestinian children since the year 2000, or even for killing Hind Rajab with more than 300 bullets from a tank at close range in late 2023? The Post cites zero examples of accountability, because it knows zero such examples exist. What magical judicial, parliamentary, and military commissions of inquiry does The Post refer to? These are all hypotheticals The Post has convinced itself exist, but only exist as a figment of their own imagination. It is reprehensible for The Post to pretend accountability exists when the overwhelming evidence from more than a half century of human rights law violations demonstrate no such thing.

[...] Indeed, this is the case in Israel. As mentioned, violations of Palestinian human rights and sovereignty has perpetuated for decades without relief. Settlement expansion continues, and the Israeli government’s promise to annex Gaza continues. The IDF has even smuggled into Gaza Israeli land developers to start planning for future illegal Israeli settlements. The arrest of a few soldiers is hardly accountability for mass war crimes and genocide of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The Post acknowledges one torture camp, but ignores that more than 10,000 Palestinian civilians are held in indefinite detention in Israeli prisons without charge, trial, due process, access to counsel, or means of relief. The Post ignores that extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank are exempt from indefinite detention, but Palestinians are not. The Post ignores that according to B’TSalem, an Israeli human rights org, more than 1000 children suffer in Israeli prisons. The Post ignores that according to Save the Children These imprisoned children are further denied access to counsel or parents, while suffering ongoing physical and sexual abuse.

[...] The facts are clear. The ICC is perfectly within its jurisdiction, right, and obligation to hold Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leaders accountable for war crimes. That the ICC has not yet reached the point of filing arrest warrants for each of the despots mentioned by The Post is nothing more than an argument for increased ICC funding so it can fulfill its mandate of prosecuting war crimes. Rather than excuse war crimes committed by people The Post likes, perhaps its editorial board can remember that their job as journalists is not to capitulate in the face of atrocity, but to hold fast the call for democracy. If this is a task too difficult for The Post’s board, then maybe it’s time to resign and let actual journalists take the lead.

Qasim Rashid debunks the Washington Post’s Gaza Genocide-whitewashing editorial loaded with pro-Israel Apartheid/AIPAC-backed propaganda criticizing the ICC for rightly prosecuting war criminals Yoav Gallant and Benjamin Netanyahu.

[jacks-weird-world]

✨Jack's thanks for your contest in your stories:

📸: @jackuno.